26/10/2011

Yesterday I got an email from the Science Fiction Book Club regarding a youtube video they thought I'd appreciate - they were right!

The video is an interview with Patrick Rothfuss (author of the great books The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear) at WorldCon 2011. Rothfuss among other things talks about why book 2 took so long, what we can expect from book 3 and just generally shows what a cool person he seems to be. Down to earth and a smile on his lip :)

In other news, I've moved in and though it's quiet and a tiny bit lonely I'm happy and enjoying it. I'm still unpacking and keep having the feeling of drowning in cardboard boxes, but thankfully today I've emptied enough that I can't start to unfold them and put them away! Will post pictures once it's all done :)

17/10/2011

Saturday we drove up two cars and a trailer full of all most of my stuff and unloaded it into my new apartment. We then drove to the nearby IKEA (my favourite store ever) and I went mad. I'm telling you my credit card cried blood - thank god I've been saving up for a few years!

The kitchen was a pitiful thing and I had decided to get a brand new one. After spending more money than I've ever spent before in one go, we once more loaded the trailer and took it over to the apartment and once more carried it all in. At this point my arms were about to fall off! (and my apartment living room looked like a cardboard monster had vomited in it)

Sunday my dad and I went back up there and started to work on part of the kitchen. Basically we're making the hallway part of the kitchen in order to give me more table room and room for both fridge/freezer and stove. We completely finished the hallway Sunday.

Today we got to work on the original kitchen, we've got a lot of tearing down to do! We also built _all_ the other pieces of furniture I bought in IKEA in order to be rid of all the cardboard packaging. I've got 4 bookcases, 2 for books and 2 featuring glass doors (1 small, 1 big) for kitchen stuff.

As you can see in the video below it's all pretty messy right now, but hopefully you can also see the potentially awesomeness lurking right around the corner!

14/10/2011

----------“Veldaren aches for
a purge, and I will be the one to deliver it. Cry out at me if you
wish, but it will change nothing. The gold is spent, the orders are
given. Let the blood flow.”It’s been five years since Haern faked his death to escape the
tyranny of his father. He has become the Watcher, a vicious killer who
knows no limits, and whose hatred of the thief guilds is unrivaled. But
when the son of Alyssa Gemcroft, one of the three leaders of the
powerful Trifect, is believed murdered, the slaughter begins anew.
Mercenaries flood the streets, with one goal in mind: find and kill the
Watcher.
Peace or destruction; every war must have its end
----------

It took me quite a while to get into this one, it just didn't appeal to me right away and I spent nearly the first half of the book, wondering who was who, unable to identify them as characters from the first book or remembering what exactly went on with them back then.

The book returns to Veldaren five years after the end of the first book and there are both new and old faces - and I really don't think we're properly introduced to any of them which was a real shame. Some characters, like Deathmask (*snort*) just seem too much, too overdone and is too much of a special unicorn. Otherwise Dalglish has portrayed relatively human and faulty people, but this guy excels at his work and no one can touch him.... come to think of it, just like MC Haern.

Haern's battle against the thief guilds and all evil is basically just him slaughtering at random and the big plot ... surprise (tadaa) of them wanting to make the thieves into the city's body guards instead was just downright dumb. Furthermore on reflection Haern is a very shallow paperthin main character in my opinion.

Over all I was disappointed by this book. Dalglish is quite good at action sequences but the rest of the book just drags it down.

11/10/2011

So, according to Goodreads I've got a total of 61 books in my to read pile and it just keeps on growing!
It's quite a daunting list really, some I own and are staring at me from the shelves (well actually right now they're muttering and gasping for air as they're all packed into boxes and ready to be moved to my apartment) and some I will either buy or borrow from the library.

Obviously there are many many more books that I wish to read, even a lot I own, that I just haven't registered any where other than my head.

Those marked with bold are the ones I own either in hard copy or digital version.

10/10/2011

It started out several weeks ago when I found a book in a book store that I initially thought would be just my type of book. However as soon as I started reading it, it soon became clear that The People's Queen by Vanora Bennett is really not my type of book. It should be, considering it's based in England in the 14th century and has its focus on the monarchy.

What's my problem then? It's utterly and completely dull. 298 pages in, with over 200 to go, nothing has actually happened of any even mild interest and the two main characters, Chaucer (poet and spineless) and Alice (money-grubbing mistress to the king) just go on and on about their boring lives. I've more or less just given up on finishing it it.

My advice to you all: Don't read this book.

Whilst reading the above abomination dullard, I started and finished City of Bones, which as you know (well you would if you've read my review) didn't really impress me much.

After that I got started on A Dance of Blades by David Dalglish (book 2 of the Shadowdance Trilogy - my review of book 1, A Dance of Cloaks, can be found here). Lucky me, this book is almost as uninspiring as the rest of them! The first 60% of the book (according to the kindle app) I've spent wondering who's who and why they're doing what they do. It jumps around and even started to ignore the timeline and sprang back and forth. Now at 79% I'm really just looking forward to the end of it.

----------
For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the "Sliver of Infinity," reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when hope was so long lost that not even its memory remained, a terribly scarred, heart-broken half-Skaa rediscovered it in the depths of the Lord Ruler's most hellish prison. Kelsier "snapped" and found in himself the powers of a Mistborn. A brilliant thief and natural leader, he turned his talents to the ultimate caper, with the Lord Ruler himself as the mark.
Kelsier recruited the underworld's elite, the smartest and most trustworthy allomancers, each of whom shares one of his many powers, and all of whom relish a high-stakes challenge. Only then does he reveal his ultimate dream, not just the greatest heist in history, but the downfall of the divine despot.
But even with the best criminal crew ever assembled, Kel's plan looks more like the ultimate long shot, until luck brings a ragged girl named Vin into his life. Like him, she's a half-Skaa orphan, but she's lived a much harsher life. Vin has learned to expect betrayal from everyone she meets, and gotten it. She will have to learn to trust, if Kel is to help her master powers of which she never dreamed.
----------

The first half, maybe even two thirds of the first book didn't quite capture me. Though very well written and interesting it was just a tad too easy to put it down, even mid-chapter. The final part though hooked me completely and I loved how things turned out.

The two kinds of magic, though interesting and original, are often a bit hard to follow. Allomancers fighting with all the mental pushing and pulling and jumping and falling - it's hard to really envision. The fero-somethings' powers of storing both data and various strengths and senses was even more obscure and it was hard to understand how it really is supposed to work for them.

Despite the slow start and the slightly confusing powers, the book held me tightly by the end and looking back I overall enjoyed it immensely. It is an intricate plot with more than meets the eye and the characters are both likeable and relatable. Vin was my absolute favourite from the very beginning and she only became even better.